For the third night in a row, anti-Donald Trump demonstrators took to the streets in several big cities and on college campuses across the United States, including an outburst of smashed windows and a dumpster fire in Portland that police countered with pepper spray and flash-bang devices.
About 4,000 protesters assembled downtown late Thursday chanting “we reject the president-elect!” the Associated Press reported. Some among the crowd vandalized 19 cars at a dealership in Northeast Portland, according to a sales manager, Oregonlive.com reports. Protesters then headed west, over the Broadway Bridge and into the Pearl District, where the windows of several businesses were smashed.
The protest was mostly peaceful until demonstrators met with an anarchist group, after which demonstrators vandalized buildings, kicked cars and knocked out power, KGW-TV reported.
On Twitter, Portland police said many protesters were "trying to get anarchist groups to stop destroying property" and that "anarchists" were refusing to do so. Demonstrators repeatedly chanted "peaceful protest."
Officers ordered protesters to disperse after the demonstration turned into what they called a riot, citing "extensive criminal and dangerous behavior." At least 26 people were arrested.
Police said the crowd, which included many people armed with bats, threw projectiles at officers, who responded by pushing back against the crowd, then making arrests and using flash-bang devices, pepper spray, rubber projectiles and types of smoke or tear gas to force people to disperse.
At about 6:15 a.m. ET Friday, the president-elect tweeted: "Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud! "
It was a change of tone for Trump, who weighed in on the protests Thursday evening, complaining that he took part in a "very open and successful presidential election" but now "professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!"
Meanwhile, demonstrations also took place in Columbus, Ohio, and Minneapolis, Minn., Thursday evening. Protests in Madison, Wisconsin's capital, and Milwaukee, the state's most populous city, drew some of the biggest crowds, with more than 1,000 demonstrators taking to streets in both cities.
"Calm down, things are not as bad as you think," Giuliani said of the protesters in a Fox & Friends interview Thursday.
see video at http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/11/11/anti-trump-protesters-pepper-sprayed-demonstrations-erupt-across-us/93633154/
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